The story’s a familiar one – you’re rushing to the train station, suitcases in hand, trying desperately to catch the train in time. As you race to the platform, you see it pulling away.

Even if it’s never happened to you, you’ve probably heard of it happening to friends, or at least friends of friends. Either way, you get the picture – it happens with surprising regularity.

But how can you avoid this happening? Well, the old adage applies – proper planning prevents a poor performance. How can you plan to get to the train station on time? Well, that’s easy. If you’re travelling long distances, then it may be an idea to pre-book your train tickets in advance to save waiting in queue when you get there. At peak times, the queue for tickets can be pretty long, and the last thing you want is to miss the train you were hoping to catch simply because the person behind the counter took too long to serve you. Most of the bigger train companies offer this service, and booking ahead of time can even save you a fair amount of money a lot of the time. Of course, there are other, more traditional ways of making sure you get to the station in time.

For instance, you can just make sure you leave in plenty of time! While this might seem like the most basic principal of timekeeping, you’d be surprised how many people leave the house ten minutes before they have to be at the station. Even if the idea of sitting around the station for half an hour or so before your train arrives doesn’t sound that appealing, it is surely preferable to making a frenzied last minute dash.

Similarly, make sure you know how you’re getting to the station. Again, you’d be surprised how many people don’t think this through. Getting a taxi to the station is all well and good, but you have to take into account that they might be busy – you can’t always expect them to be able to come for you right away. Maybe looking at the train timetables then arranging with a friend or family member to give you a lift might be a better bet, simply because you’ll know if they can pick you up at the agreed time or not.

Finally, when you’re at the station, make sure you have all your snacks, reading material, etc. with you. Even though most stations have their own shops within them, it all adds to the total time between leaving your house and getting to the station. Bringing snacks for the journey with you saves you time (and money) once you arrive at the station, and lets you go straight to the platform if needs be – simple!

Jesse Wallace writes for a digital marketing agency. This article has been commissioned by a client of said agency. This article is not designed to promote, but should be considered professional content.